Darkets Hour

May, 1940: Following his return from Norway and a short time on coast guard duty in Kent, Sergeant Jack Tanner finds himself in Belgium with the 1st Battalion of the Kings Own Yorkshire Rangers, under Captain Nick Barclay. Their task is to hold the bottom part of the British line along the River Escaut against an increasingly powerful and impressive German army. But, Tanner is dismayed to find that his new Company Sergeant Major is Bill Scrutton — a hard and unscrupulous former thief, and Tanner’s first sergeant in India. Tanner and Scrutton loathe one another.